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Henry Fonda
| birth_place = Grand Island, Nebraska, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | birth_name = Henry Jaynes Fonda | restingplace = | alma_mater = University of Minnesota | occupation = Actor | years_active = 1928–1982 | party = Democratic | spouse = | children = 3; including Jane and Peter Fonda | relatives = Bridget Fonda (granddaughter) Troy Garity (grandson) | module = | branch = | serviceyears = 1942–1946 | rank = Lieutenant (junior grade) | unit = * }} | battles = World War II | awards = }} }} }} Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American film and stage actorObituary Variety, August 18, 1982. with a career spanning five decades. Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins. He made his Hollywood debut in 1935, and his career gained momentum after his Academy Award-nominated performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, a 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel about an Oklahoma family who moved west during the Dust Bowl. Throughout five decades in Hollywood, Fonda cultivated a strong, appealing screen image in such classics as The Ox-Bow Incident, Mister Roberts, and 12 Angry Men. Later, Fonda moved both toward darker epics such as Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West and lighter roles in family comedies such as Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 54th Academy Awards for the movie On Golden Pond, his final film role. Fonda was the patriarch of a family of famous actors, including daughter Jane Fonda, son Peter Fonda, granddaughter Bridget Fonda, and grandson Troy Garity. His family and close friends called him "Hank". In 1999, he was named the sixth-Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute. Family history and early life Born in Grand Island, Nebraska in May 1905, Henry Jaynes Fonda was the son of printer William Brace Fonda, and his wife, Herberta (Jaynes). The family moved to Omaha, Nebraska in 1906. Fonda's patrilineal line originates with an ancestor from Genoa, Italy, who migrated to the Netherlands in the 15th century. In 1642, a branch of the Fonda family immigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland on the East Coast of North America. They were among the first Dutch population to settle in what is now upstate New York, establishing the town of Fonda, New York. By 1888, many of their descendants had relocated to Nebraska.Bosworth, Patricia, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xpl3_q-x8gUC&printsec=frontcover Jane Fonda, The Private Life of a Public Woman], Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, p.18. Fonda was brought up as a Christian Scientist, though he was baptized an Episcopalian at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Grand Island. He said, "My whole damn family was nice." They were a close family and highly supportive, especially in health matters, as they avoided doctors due to their religion.Fonda 1981, p. 21. Despite having a religious background, he later became an agnostic. Fonda was a bashful, short boy who tended to avoid girls, except his sisters, and was a good skater, swimmer, and runner. He worked part-time in his father's print plant and imagined a possible career as a journalist. Later, he worked after school for the phone company. He also enjoyed drawing. Fonda was active in the Boy Scouts of America; Teichmann reports that he reached the rank of Eagle Scout.Fonda 1981, p. 29. However, this is denied elsewhere. When he was about 14, his father took him to observe the brutal lynching of Will Brown during the Omaha race riot of 1919.Fonda 1981, p. 25. This enraged the young Fonda and he kept a keen awareness of prejudice for the rest of his life.Race Riots of 1919 , Nebraska Studies, Retrieved on 2007-01-28. By his senior year in high school, Fonda had grown to more than six feet (1.8m) tall, but remained shy. He attended the University of Minnesota, where he majored in journalism,Henry Fonda. YahooMovies.com. Retrieved on January 11, 2007. but he did not graduate. He took a job with the Retail Credit Company. Filmography Awards References External links * Henry Fonda on IMDb Category:1905 births Category:1982 deaths Category:20th Century Fox contract players Category:20th-century American actors Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:Former Christian Scientists Category:American agnostics Category:American beekeepers Category:American film actors Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:American naval personnel of World War II Category:American people of Dutch descent Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of Frisian descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American people of Norwegian descent Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:American Theater Hall of Fame inductees Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Foreign Actor BAFTA Award winners Category:California Democrats Category:Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners Category:Eagle Scouts Category:Fonda family Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Actors from Omaha, Nebraska Category:Actors of Italian descent Category:Male Spaghetti Western actors Category:Male Western (genre) film actors Category:Military personnel from Nebraska Category:Tony Award winners Category:United States Navy officers Category:University of Minnesota alumni Category:Vaudeville performers Category:People from Grand Island, Nebraska Category:AFI Life Achievement Award recipients